Summertime Haze
Part 1.9 - The Baxter Family
Toby walked up to his well maintained house, with it’s perfect lawn and unmarred paint job, and straightened his shirt, attempting to remove the wrinkles. He and his wife, Hayley, practiced a strict mantra of perfection and good behavior, all inspired by their devout faith in the Mother.
“Honey, I’m home!” Toby called out as soon as he stepped into the family’s entry room.
Hayley was at his side within 30 seconds, wearing a cooking apron. “Dinner’s in the oven, and the kids are at the kitchen table, doing homework. How was the gym?”
“I love nothing more than a good workout,” Toby smiled. “Except you and the kids, that is, my dear.”
Toby and Hayley kissed.
The Baxters were a pair of high school sweethearts. They both came from extraordinarily wealthy families, and were well known across the entire school. Toby was a star of the football team, regularly making the right moves that led the team to a touchdown. At the same time, he was a key member of the Mathletes, regularly leading his team to victory with quick thinking Hayley, meanwhile, was the head cheerleader and the head of the Student Government. She called many of the shots, and it was said that even the teachers respected her opinions.
The pair bought a house with money borrowed from their parents right after graduation. They were married within a year. Hayley was content with being the perfect housewife, and decided to become a stay at home mom when she got pregnant before Toby went off to college. By the time Toby was finished the college, the couple had two perfect children, and were very well respected members of the local church and community. It was another year before they met the likes of Henry and Ellen, but everything was perfect in their lives, and they were content with nothing ever changing.
Toby and Hayley smiled at each other with love in their eyes before they broke apart and walked into the living room. Their two kids sat at the dining room table, working hard on their homework.
“How are my two little kids?” Toby laughed, throwing out his hands for a hug.
“Dad!” the boy, Nathan, exclaimed, jumping up from the table to embrace him.
Toby chuckled as he picked him up in a massive bear hug before putting him back down.
The girl, Jennifer, scowled at him from across her homework. “Dad. I’m working.”
“Okay, okay,” Toby laughed. “I’ll let my little princess finish her work before I ask her how her day at school went.”
“School was great!” Nathan interrupted. “My friends and I all pretended we were dinosaurs, and chased girls across the playground!”
“That sounds like a lot of fun!”
Hayley watched the going ons, a smile on her face. The oven beeped from the kitchen, and she hurried over to pull it out.
“Now, let’s help your mother out and set the table, shall we?” Toby asked.
Jennifer and Nathan nodded, and put away their homework before heading off to the dish cabinet.
The four enjoyed a respectable dinner, discussing school, work, and their family. Phones, toys, or any topic that wasn’t G rated would never make an appearance at the Baxter dinner table.
Later that night, once the kids were in bed, Toby and Hayley sat, watching some raunchy romance movie they’d seen several times already.
“I talked to that kid who was checking me out at the gym the other day,” Toby told her.
Hayley shut off the tv. “Did you? What did he say? Did he apologize?”
Toby nodded. “I let him know that I was happily married, with a gorgeous wife and two adorable children, and he swore that he would respect that.”
“Good,” Hayley nodded. She picked up the remote, about to turn the tv back on, but Toby kept talking.
“You know… he really isn’t a kid. He’s... I think, five or so years younger than us? I started to really hit it off with him and the rooftop bartender, I think it’d be great to have the two over for dinner sometime.”
“Toby, sweetie…” Hayley said, shaking her head. “A homosexual and a bartender, in our house? As an influence on our children? We both know better. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against either of their lifestyles, but we don’t need them in our home.”
Toby nodded. “That’s understandable. We couldn’t have either Nathan or Jennifer grow up to be anything less than perfect.”
“Exactly,” Hayley smiled. “I have nothing against you being friends with him, or, preferably, casual acquaintances, in fact, I’d love to meet them! Just don’t let them tarnish our children or family name.”
“That sounds perfect. I’ll try to arrange something in the next month or so.”
Meanwhile, Henry was in his house, locking up for the night. His teeth were brushed, he was in his pajamas, he just needed to lock her doors and windows because Bennett had mentioned that there’d been some minor crime in the area in past years.
Just as he was locking the back door, he heard a knock at the front door.
Who could that be at the hour?
Henry walked across the dark living room, and lazily opened the front door.
“What is it Bennett?” he muttered.
His blood ran cold as he saw who was actually standing there.
Jaxon Kauker. The kid who’d bullied him throughout so much of high school, the kid who’d shown up at his house the very night he ran away from home and taunted him about his newly revealed sexuality.
Henry slammed the door in his face, and bolted it shut. He leaned against it, taking deep breaths. As he started to process things and relive the events of his last day of formal education, he sank to the floor and began to cry. He knew that there was only one reason for why Jaxon was here, in Willow Creek, at his front door in the dead of night.
Ellen.